This twist on classic monster cookies really quadruples down on that peanut flavor! Calling all peanut butter lovers, you’ll never need another cookie recipe again-these peanut butter monster cookies are bakery quality. 

THE INGREDIENTS: 

Butter: Butter is the classic fat added to many cookie recipes. It contributes to the chewy texture and the richness of these cookies. When it comes to salted versus unsalted, we stick to unsalted butter in our recipes. If salted butter is what you have on hand, though, feel free to use it! Just reduce or omit the added salt that we put into this cookie dough.

Next up, why is it important that our butter is melted? Why did we add as much as we did? Whether you use softened or melted butter greatly contributes to the texture of the cookie. If we were to use softened butter, we would have whipped air into it as we mixed in the sugar. This would have contributed to a fluffier, lighter texture. As popular as that texture may be, we like our cookies chewy! To do so, melted butter is your pal. It means you contribute less air to your cookies and help increase spread. Cookies made with softened butter, or cookies that chill in the fridge, spread less.

Now, why 1 stick of butter? Why not less or more? With any less butter, we wouldn’t have enough fat or liquid to bring our cookies together. They would be unfortunately dry. If we were to add more butter, we would enter a new territory. Crispy, thin cookie territory. Although that is loved by many, we’re still going for chewy here! You want to have melted butter, but not too much butter, to achieve optimal chewiness. 

White Sugar: Next up, white sugar! White sugar adds the sweetness you want in this cookie recipe. We don’t recommend increasing the amount of white sugar in this recipe for two reasons: sweetness and texture. We believe these cookies are already at a perfect sweetness, neither a sugar overload nor disappointingly not sweet. When it comes to texture, more sugar means you’re entering crispy, thin cookie territory again. If you were to only change the amount of added sugar in this recipe, then adding more is going to risk that texture and cause you to lose the ultimate chewiness that we already have going on here. 

Brown Sugar: We don’t just add white sugar in our cookie recipe, but we add brown sugar! The three reasons for this are moisture, flavor, and sweetness. Brown sugar adds more moisture to a cookie than its white sugar counterpart. A little bit more moisture helps make sure we aren’t serving up dry cookies. Next up, there is flavor! Brown sugar is white sugar with added molasses. That molasses flavor pairs well not just in spiced desserts, but it pairs wonderfully with the flavor of peanut butter. Finally, there is sweetness. Brown sugar is sugar, after all, and that turns our cookies into a sweet treat. 

Flour: You may not taste flour directly, but it is so incredibly important. It’s a dry ingredient that provides structure, saving our cookies from being a crumbly mess. Flour also contains gluten, something that increases and causes a chewier bite the more you mix it. That’s why mixing is less stressful for cookies than desserts you would prefer to be tender, such as a chocolate cake. Increasing the flour in this cookie leads to two problems. The first problem would be that the cookies would spread less. The second problem would be texture. The cookies would be noticeably drier and less chewy. Then, there is reducing the flour. The cookies would spread too much and be a bit of a wet mess. Not ideal for chewy cookies, either! 

Oats: In classic monster cookies, oats are right in there with the rest of the ingredients! Even though these are peanut butter monster cookies, they are still monster cookies, so in the oats went for this recipe! What’s also cool about oats is that they soak up more moisture than flour does. They really help to make sure our cookies are not overly wet nor overly floury. Since oats are not supposed to be the star of this recipe (this is not an oatmeal raisin cookie), they’re present without being overwhelmingly noticeable. We don’t recommend changing our ratio of oats:flour for monster cookies. 

Baking Powder: Cookies need a little help, a little lift, to not be overly dense. That’s where leavening agents come in! One of the two leavening agents we use in this recipe is baking powder. Baking powder is a combination of a leavening agent and an acid to activate it. It can be used in larger quantities than baking soda because it’s a bit weaker. We say there’s no need to mess with the baking powder and baking soda ratios in this recipe. They already work, and there’s not much else to that! 

Baking Soda: The second leavening agent in this cookie recipe is baking soda. It’s stronger than baking powder, but using larger amounts of baking soda can quickly add a metallic flavor to your cookies. To be extra safe that we don’t do that, we add part baking soda and part baking powder. The amount of baking soda already works great in this recipe, so we really wouldn’t mess around with it. 

Salt: A little salt helps you appreciate the sweetness! Adjust to taste. 

Egg: A classic! Eggs bind our dry and wet ingredients together, while also providing moisture to our dough and structure to our cookies. They help to keep our cookies from crumbling, in short.  

Peanut Butter: Peanut butter is a must-have ingredient in these peanut butter monster cookies! It’s one of our wet ingredients, helping our dough come together. Of course, peanut butter doesn’t stop there! Its flavor is very obvious in these cookies, which is just what you want. It helps make these cookies taste like a peanut butter cookie with a ton of mix-ins. 

Peanuts: Although flaky sea salt may be the way to add a savory twist to chocolate chip cookies, peanuts are the savory ingredient for these monsters! They add crunch, more peanut flavor, and something not sweet to the mix. With all of the peanut butter chips and chocolate coated peanuts around it, it really helps bring these cookies back from sugarland and down to Earth … or maybe down to planet Yum with how yummy they are! You can increase or decrease as you like. You can even replace these peanuts with all chocolate covered peanuts 

Peanut Butter Chips: You may be used to hearing the word chocolate chips, but did you know there are peanut butter flavored baking chips as well? They’re like very sweet drops of peanut butter. Due to their composition, they also don’t meld into the cookie as peanut butter does. Since they’re a bit softer than chocolate chips, you may find that you don’t feel as if you’re biting into any when you eat a cookie. However, that signature, sweet flavor you’re tasting? A lot of it is because of those peanut butter chips! You can add up to another ¼ cup of these and have a successful cookie, but we wouldn’t go overboard. We personally think ½ cup is just the right amount. 

Chocolate Covered Peanuts: What makes monster cookies so special is that they have a bit of everything! Oftentimes everything is referred to as oats, nuts, peanut butter, and chocolate. Just because we want these monster cookies to be peanut butter forward does not mean we have to skip out on having any chocolate! You can add either store bought chocolate covered peanuts, any candy that has chocolate and peanuts, or make your own chocolate covered peanuts! Keep in mind that if you are adding chocolate covered peanuts that are fairly large, you might not actually be able to fit many in a ½ cup due to all the open space that can’t be filled. In that case, throw an extra handful in there. Smaller chocolate covered peanuts, on the other hand, fill the ½ cup and are a bit more accurate. 

KEY INFORMATION: 

Why Do Some Cookies Flatten? Why Do Some Cookies Not Spread? Some cookies come out of the oven looking about the same as you put them in. Other cookies flatten so much they run into the other cookies on your sheet. Why is this? Well, it has to do a lot with the butter and the flour.

The more flour or less butter you add to a cookie, the drier the dough becomes. This leads itself to cookies that spread less. The opposite happens when you have less flour or more butter. Cookies that don’t spread may have also been chilled too long and cookies that spread too much might have missed a required chilling step. The firmer the butter in the cookies is when it goes into the oven, the less the cookie spreads. Of course, butter and flour aren’t the only components in a cookie recipe! However, we’ve found that they are two pretty important ones compared to the other

How Do You Measure Peanut Butter? Coat your measuring cup with oil before spooning in your peanut butter. Once the measuring cup is full, you can tip it upside down and the peanut butter will fall right out!

What Else Can Go In a Monster Cookie? Don’t have all the mix-ins this recipe stated or want to try something else? Go for other kinds of nuts, using cookie butter or flavored peanut butter instead of classic peanut butter, using chocolate chips, using butterscotch or other flavored baking chips, or mix in just about any chopped candy. Assuming it’s not some fruity hard candy, of course. 

What Goes With Peanut Butter Monster Cookies? Although these cookies pair great with a glass of milk, what if you want something more? In terms of a cookie spread, we’d go for this cookie, something fruity, and something chocolatey. For example, you could add our oatmeal raisin cookies and our chocolate chip cookies to the mix and there should be a little something for everyone. Otherwise, this cookie could be crumbled into a topping for an awesome sundae topped with caramel, chocolate, or peanut butter sauce. You could even top pudding with it or dip it into a nice malt.